Excerpt: Rep. Kevin Brady (R., Texas), a leading Republican on trade issues, urged the Senate Tuesday to quickly pass a trade-related bill without amendments to help clear the way for approval of free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.
The Texas Republican who heads the House Ways and Means trade subcommittee said he is optimistic that the three trade pacts will be passed "very soon," with a path worked out to meet a White House demand that funding for job retraining to help workers displaced by trade be passed at the same time.
Brady confirmed that the plan is for the Senate to attach a scaled-back version of the retraining program, known as Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA, to a bill passed by the House last week to provide duty-free access for imports from developing countries.
"I hope that the Senate will immediately turn to that bill and pass it with the TAA deal, defeating all other amendments," he said in prepared remarks for a speech to the USA Engage business group coalition. "At that point, we hope that the administration will send up the pending agreements, and then the House, as the Speaker has promised, can consider these agreements and TAA in tandem."